Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Labour Party Selection Fraud in St Ann's
After it was discovered at the St Ann's Labour Party selection candidate selection meeting that there were people present and voting who should not have been, I came home from the pub (where I'd heard about it) and wrote this article. It has subsequently been edited by site admins to remove the names of people who were embarrassed or in the final case where a journalist said it was potentially libellous. Well here I will attempt to summarise what we have subsequently found out and hopefully take people's attention away from my original appalling rant.
Back in May (The Ward AGM):
- The St Ann's Ward AGM was convened on Thursday the 23rd of May instead of the usual first Wednesday of June by the then Ward Secretary, Barbara Blake.
- Protests were made by members about this but they were rebuffed by the Ward Chairman.
- At this meeting The current Ward Secretary resigned and there was bloc voting to decide the new Ward Secretary.
- A person in the bloc opposing John Blake turned up late and was prevented from voting despite there being nothing about this in the Labour Party rules.
- John Blake was elected Ward Secretary by one vote.
The Selection Meeting:
- The meeting was run by The Secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party , and Steve Hart from Hornsey & Wood Green.
- A candidate who arrived early noticed the five members arrive with Ali Gul Ozbek, sensed that something was up and mentioned it to Barbara Blake. When the other candidate seemed unhelpful they mentioned it to Steve Hart. Then the candidate went looking for the five people but was barred from entering the room (3o minutes before the selection) by the Ward Secretary.
- By the time one member I have spoken to arrived, the five members were seated at the back of the room. Four men and one woman (who works in Ali Ozbek's Pharmacy).
- A blonde woman turned up before anyone had started speaking but was barred from entering the room by the Ward Secretary, despite remonstrating with him.
- Barbara Blake won in the first round (to select a female candidate) against Zena Brabazon and Emine Ibrahim by two votes. It was 11/1/14. Everybody voted.
- It is alleged that one candidate knew the questions in advance and had prepared answers.
- At the appropriate point in the meeting the secretary asked if everyone was OK with the others in the room and everybody laughed.
- There were various factions voting together in the room; the five new members, Charles Adje's family, Zena and David's people and the Ward Secretary's people.
- In the final round Ali Ozbek and Peter Morton were selected, beating Zena by one vote.
- Ali is a local chemist and businessman on Green Lanes who seemed very passionate about what should be done with St Ann's and spoke eloquently about the need to reduce business rates. He is also a property developer.
- At the time Peter worked as head of press for the Labour Party.
- Barbara is a trade union official and ex Ward Secretary.
After the Selection Meeting
- A fellow councillor calls David to commiserate with him.
- David Browne and Zena Brabazon did some investigation using the St Ann's Labour Party membership list and the electoral roll.
- They discovered that nineteen new members signed up that year did not actually live in St Ann's and that they had either given Green Lanes business addresses when they signed up or claimed addresses in the ward.
- Not one of these new members, many of whom were recruited on the 8th of July gave an address in the ward at which they are eligible to vote, which is required by party rules.
- Five of these members were "eligible" to vote because they signed up before the cut off date of the 30th of April, however they should have been barred from voting because they do not actually live in the ward.
- Zena and David wrote to their local Labour Party officials who sent their evidence on to the London Labour Party.
- Nobody can tell me for sure where Ali Ozbek lives but he claims an address in Finsbury Park Avenue.
- Ali Ozbek has donated money to the Labour Party.
- According to a twitter exchange with a Labour councillor in another ward, the membership list should have been gone through before the meeting by the person running it to make sure this kind of thing did not happen, it was certainly done in their ward.
- When one of the five members who voted was called at his home his partner informed the caller that he had been in Turkey for a while and was not due back yet.
- In Harringay several new Labour Party members were registered using Green Lanes business addresses but not before the cut off date.
- Barbara Blake has told local traders that it is OK to register as a member in the Labour Party from a business address (it is definitely not) and the Tottenham Membership Secretary has expressed a similar view in a meeting, only to be corrected.
The "Corruption in Haringey Labour" article.
- After I wrote the original article, in which I also made some allegations against Claire Kober, the only phone call to site admins was to remove the Secretary of the St Ann's Labour party's name from the discussion.
- There was a lot of comment on the original thread and as of Saturday the 12th of October it appears to have been viewed more than 7000 times, although I dispute that as a useful metric (I think the actual figure is much lower).
- After some badgering it was picked up by an overworked Stephen Moore at the Tottenham Journal, here.
Trying to get a re-run
- I have pushed the councillor who commiserated David on his loss on Twitter to join calls asking for a re-run of the election but they have resolutely refused, to the point where it's all a bit weird and "la la la, I can't hear you".
- As it stands the London Labour Party have agreed that the five people were not eligible to vote but they say that this was not picked up before or during the meeting so the result stands. Their investigation consisted of speaking to the Ward Secretary and Steve Hart. Steve Hart lied because someone did speak to him before the meeting.
- The London Labour Party have the attendance list and will not release it, presumably because it shows that people were not identified correctly and that at least two of the five were imposters.
- Appeals to the NEC have all been rebuffed, even with the full acknowledgement of what went on.
The Labour doorstep in Harringay
- The St Ann's Labour Party have a great deal of trouble getting members to help them out with canvassing. A photograph has been tweeted showing more than 20 people out in Harringay Ward above the same session in St Ann's, with just two.
- When David Lammy, after a lot of badgering apparently, stepped out in St Ann's for the Labour doorstep he was met by a picket of local men calling on him not to support the St Ann's fraudsters. As I understand it he will not be going out with them again.
The Police are involved
- On Monday the 10th of February Haringey MPS made a visit to me on behalf of the secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party and his partner.
- It was alleged that I had called him filth on Twitter (which I have not, that was someone else) and that I said "I know I'm hassling you but...". I was served with a Notice of Harassment Letter which will now appear in extended CRB checks.
*An individual has asked that their name be replaced with their function in this post on the grounds that they are not seeking public office. This has been done.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour, st ann's labour, stanns
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I've now seen a copy of the email sent by Nora Mulready to members of Woodlands Park Residents' Association. Frankly I'm astonished why pointing out that people joined the wrong Labour Party ward or constituency is interpreted as a subtle form of racism. I hope that Nora will post on Harringay Online explaining what she means.
In the past I've served as branch secretary of Tottenham Hale Labour Party ward. Also for two years as Tottenham Constituency Secretary. I've always been very proud of the fact that Labour Party meetings are a place where people from Haringey's diverse communities come together, getting to know one another; working together; and discussing and debating local and national issues.
Over the years, as far as I know, the members of Tottenham Hale ward have lived in the same ward as me - within walking distance of my home. But if my neighbours live on the western side of Tottenham High Road and join the Labour Party, they are in Bruce Grove ward. If their homes are across Monument Way, they join Tottenham Green ward. If their house is in Palmer's Green they join the appropriate Enfield ward.
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In Part 1 of this thread, in a post on 11 October Stephen Moore Editor of the Tottenham Journal said he asked the Labour Party London Region for:
“specific details … (well, as specific as they're likely to give me considering data protection issues) of the information they've found which contradicts the residency/electoral register issues. No reply as yet.”
It seems to me that while fully complying with data protection the London Region can explain entirely clearly what investigation it carried out and the evidence it found to show that the original allegations of rule-breaking were mistaken/inaccurate. (Or not, as the case may be.)
They can tell Stephen - and us - who they contacted and spoke to during their "investigation". They can say whether or not they have matched the membership list of St Ann's Labour Party branch with the public Electoral Register. They can recheck the work done by Cllr David Browne using internet sources to find those members' home addresses. (If they don't know how to do internet searches I'm sure David will help them.)
To tell Stephen what they found, while protecting each individual's identity they can use the convention of letters instead of names (E.g. Mr A, Ms B, Mr C, etc) for each of the nineteen people whose membership of St Ann's ward branch was queried.
Especially for those five people who attended the selection meeting, I'd expect a proper investigation by the Region to include making personal contact. That may clear up any possible misunderstanding about where they actually live and are registered to vote. Although if their homes aren't in St Ann's ward, or even in Tottenham constituency, perhaps they should be asked why they spent their own money signing-up to a political party somewhere else?
By the way, I hear that Haringey Labour are planning to ratify all selected candidates at a meeting this Wednesday 16 October 2013. Presumably this is part of the local attempt to create "facts" by ignoring evidence. It also ignores the appeal about St Ann's made to the National Executive Committee (N.E.C.) of the Labour Party. This seems very unfair on all Labour candidates across the borough who will now go into the election campaign under a cloud.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor. My partner Zena Brabazon is one of the two de-selected candidates for St Ann's. The other is Cllr David Browne.)
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Permalink Reply by Keith Waterhouse on
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Your Zena is an absolute diamond. She has been helping me deal with a huge problem where I live and without her help there would have been no happy ending. She has been treated poorly in regards to this mess.
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It is very clear that the process of the recent selection has reason to be called ''tarnished", the Labour party itself has admitted it was not legitimate.
The only alternative is for a re-run. Any institution or organisation would do the same in same situation, to maintain their integrity.
I for one know from my own circle of people I communicate with on regular basis and whom don't necessarily comment on HOL, that majority are horrified about this illegitimate selection process. The Labour Party are doing themselves few favors to earn respect and future votes. Very, very short-sighted.
For anyone who is not loyal to a particular party, this incident will be top of mind next election Labour Party=party lacking integrity.
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Well said. Try living n the Ward and hear what people are saying.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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For what it's worth, the evidence that David and Zena gathered cannot be published because it contains names and addresses of Labour Party "members". Not only did these 19 people sign up en bloc, they signed up unwaged to get it cheaper.
And a second point I would make is that this is completely NOT about the unfairness to David and Zena but the unfairness to US. Who do you want your councillors to be loyal to, you or the people who manipulated the result to put them there?
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Great thread John. As you know the choice of councillors is what you at the Labour Party are trusted to do by the rest of us in the community. The problem is that there has always been an element in the party who do not see the community as a whole; they see the community they come from i.e. the Martians, so that means from their point of you they are now a Martian councillor and represent the Martian community, but wait a minute what about everybody else who is not Martian? We all know in St Anns Ward that this has happened repeatedly and the councillors involved do not care less: in short, they discriminate in favour of their community to the exclusion of every one else and that is not fair. In the eyes of the WHOLE community is how it should be dealt with.
When it comes to Zena and David it was unfair. They were the unwitting victims of an incompetent selection process that did not exercise the correct stops, checks and balances and failed not just the party but the community of St Anns Ward-do not for a second think that we do not know whats going on or that this will be forgotten in a hurry.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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What happened to Zena and David was deliberate and not in the interests of residents or members or the party. The process will need to run again until it is totally above board and beyond criticism of next year's voters. Whatever the decision of St Ann's members, we can't lay ourselves open to the view that our candidates were chosen by people who weren't eligible to choose them.
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Julie, do you agree with me that this was sanctioned by the Labour Party? Claire Kober and Joe Goldberg knew that it was going on, although not necessarily about the ring-ins? There has been a concerted effort by the Labour Party, probably at Councillor Kober's request, to install puppet councillors in the borough that will be more loyal and less inquisitive.
I mean four people shortlisted for selection in Harringay (* Peter Moreton was alsho shortlisted here but was selected in St Ann's), thirteen in St Ann's and bloody THREE in Seven Sisters. Next up we'll have to have a thread about what happened in Noel Park.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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If there were only three in Seven Sisters that broke the rules. There has to be x plus one where x = number of seats. Not sure whether there have to be two women on that list, as the first vote is to choose a woman.
Is this the other scandal? Can we get the list of candidates for Seven Sisters?
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Only three candidates stood for selection in Seven Sisters,
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